GEHA: A Little-Known
Prime Example of Germany Maintaining Its Arms Industry
Between the World Wars

The history
of the unique GEHA bolt-action shotgun and who designed it
has been somewhat unknown up until now. Using various
sources from the internet along with guns I've seen come up
for auction and have handled and examined in person, I have
managed to find out what firm designed these guns, when, and
when manufacture ceased. Read on to find out!

The first
thing you may be asking yourself is “what on earth is a GEHA?”
Simply put, it’s a converted Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle bored
out for a 12, 16, or 20 Gauge shotshell, with 1 shell in the
magazine plus 1 in the chamber capacity. It is
half-stocked, and the wood is usually military grade and was
never changed from the Gewehr 98 to the GEHA. It uses a
sprung, detachable bolthead that fits over the old Gewehr 98
bolthead, and also utilizes a receiver strengthener/shell
deflector that was added because so much metal was removed
from the original rifle action. A new trigger assembly and
triggerguard were also fitted so as to be more suitable to a
shotgun. For one, the triggerguard was quite beefy. For
another, the trigger itself was single-stage (as opposed to
the two-stage military rifle trigger of the Gewehr 98).
These trigger and triggerguard features are shared by the
Remo and Hard Hit Heart, the two other Mauser conversion
shotguns. Another feature of these guns is that the bolt
handles were bent.

The first GEHA shotguns were not GEHA's. Rather,
they were made by an optics company (they built components
for Zeiss) and guild sporterizer known both as Gebrueder
Rempt and alternately as Remo-Gewehrfabrik (Remo Rifle
Company). Located in Suhl, Germany, Remo realized that they
would go out of business without military contracts during
the Weimar Republic era if they didn't think of something
pretty quickly. An unknown someone at Remo-Gewehrfabrik
then suggested buying surplus Gewehr 98's from what was left
of the German Army, and converting them into 12 Gauge
shotguns. The earliest Remos were comparable to most Guild
Guns, and were heavily engraved in a Mauser sporter-style
stock with cheekpiece. A second gun in 16 Gauge (referred
to officially as the Remo II) was soon released. The first
12 Gauge Remo was made in 1919.

Early Remo shotguns are beautiful. They lack the
bluing on the receiver of later guns (a feature shared with
the military Gewehr 98 rifle), but set some early
precedents. Firstly, a notch was cut in the receiver ring to
allow proper sighting of the guns. The safety was also
filed down a tad to get a proper sighting plane (though this
was omitted from later Remos). In addition, the magazine
was modified to hold one shell on each model. Another early
feature of these guns was that the receiver wall
strengthener/shell deflector was not screwed, but rather
welded on. The welding jobs were quite well done, and it is
often difficult to see that the shell deflector was not in
fact part of the gun’s receiver. The Remo also had a fully
choked barrel. Other features included a cheekpiece and
sling swivels.

While the Remo would eventually adopt the screw-on
strengthener/deflector and blued receiver (although not in
that order...I have seen a Remo II with a blued receiver and
welded strengthener, along with sling swivels...perhaps this
was a "transitional" model?), it would retain the
fully-choked barrel and a more elegant stock (albeit sans
engraving and cheekpiece) throughout the rest of its
manufacture. Eventually, to compete with the lower-priced
GEHA, Remo introduced (possibly in the late 1920's) a
lower-grade shotgun with a fancier stock than the GEHA, but
that retained the Gewehr 98's military wood. I call these
guns “Remo Economy Models.” I have only heard of these
shotguns appearing in 12 Gauge, but if you can find a 16
Gauge, please email me. Another measure used to compete
with the GEHA was fewer concessions to vanity as the years
passed, most notably the level of engraving going down.
Remo stayed in business until 1941, but dropped their
shotgun around 1933.

With the success of the Remo shotgun, Gustav
Genschow, Adamy Gebrueder, and several others began
manufacturing two lower-priced alternatives to the Remo and
gave the base model the acronymized name of the
distributor...GEHA. The GEHA was simple. It retained the
basic features of the Remo (including the filed safety of
the early Remo), but the barrel was simpler. It was
cylinder-bored, as opposed to the full-choke bores of the
Remo (Although a few GEHA’s have been noted with
fully-choked bores, they seem to be in a small minority.
Frank de Haas notes one of the guns appearing in his book
Bolt-Action Rifles co-authored by Dr. Wayne van Zwoll.
More on de Haas’s blurb about the guns can be seen further
in the article.). It also retained the military Gewehr 98
stock, and was a no-frills gun without any provisions for a
front sling swivel (although it retained the rear swivel
mount from the Gewehr 98). The hole for the Gewehr 98’s
bolt takedown donut was filled with a medallion reading "GEHA"
in script. It was put on the market around 1920 or 1921.

The GEHA came in three barrel lengths, 26.5", 27"
(which either replaced or was displaced by the 26.5" model),
and 32". Taking advantage of the cylinder bore, a few of
the guns were made with rifled bores as slug guns. I have
seen very few of these even mentioned. Many GEHA's were
produced, and they are the most common Mauser conversion
shotguns. They also introduced a 20 Gauge model to stay
competitive with Remo (Remo never produced a 20 gauge
shotgun, to my knowledge, although if you see one, don't
hesitate to contact me). Like Remo, these larger companies
bought surplus Gewehr 98's from the arsenals for
conversion.

Spandau
Arsenal seems to really have been selling its rifles, as
some late-War, 1918-dated Spandau receivers turn up with
either Pieper of Liege or Siemens & Halske subcontractor
marks under the receiver. A lot of these turn up on the
receivers underneath the wood on the GEHA’s, and because
Pieper also made low-end Belgian shotguns in the
1890's-1910's under the name Bayard, some people mistakenly
assume that the GEHA was made by Bayard (including Frank de
Haas, although he probably had no way of knowing of the
recently-discovered Spandau receiver contract). The last
GEHA's were produced a little before the Remo was phased
out, possibly around 1932 or 1933. To make an educated
guess, this is because the manufacturers of the GEHA were
far more important, militarily, to the German government
than Remo-Gewehrfabrik.

The higher-end model of the GEHA was the Hard Hit
Heart, although I'm unsure where the name has its origins.
It differs from the GEHA by usually having a finished stock,
a heart instead of "GEHA" on the insert in the stock (which
was made not of sheet metal, but rather of well-carved
wood), a stock cartouche saying "Hard Hit Heart" in a circle
over a smiley face heart (did these guys have a bizarre
sense of humor or what?), and, finally, a fully-choked
barrel as an option. The Hard Hit Heart is not as common as
the GEHA, but certainly not as uncommon as the Remo. It was
made by the same companies the GEHA was made by, but period
of manufacture is uncertain. It was probably introduced a
little after the GEHA, and may have died off around the same
time as the GEHA did. But these now-scorned shotguns kept
Germany's arms industry alive. Surviving on Guild Sporters,
high-end shotguns, and a few rifles for the Reichswehr alone
would have been nearly impossibly for all but a few (Merkel
and Sauer, namely). Even the much renowned Heym is said to
have made GEHA shotguns.

Enter the Nazis. With the military buildup of the
1930's, the GEHA and Remo shotguns were eliminated from the
repertoires of the larger companies and Remo-Gewehrfabrik
alike. They went back to making military rifles, submachine
guns, machine guns, and optics. The Germans did not go to
war with the shotgun, and thus, there was no time to produce
it. But it had kept the gunmakers "in practice" for the
Kar98k and others. The humble GEHA probably saved much of
Germany's arms industry from collapsing during the Weimar
Republic.

A relatively comprehensive but by no means
complete list of "remanufacturers" for the GEHA and Remo is
now available for both the Remo and GEHA brands (I still
can't find out much about Hard Hit Heart).

Remo and Remo II
-Remo-Gewehrfabrik, aka Gebrueder Rempt

GEHA
-Gustav Genschow (Aka Geco; they were an early manufacturer
of these guns…this company also made single-shot .22 S-L-LR
rifles in the 1920’s. Due to Jewish ownership, however, the
Third Reich redistributed Genschow’s assets to Nazi-friendly
companies such as Gustloff-Werke. Note that Frank de Haas
mistakes the Geco-manufactured guns for variants in unto
themselves of the GEHA.)
-Adamy Gebrueder (This company made an early over/under
shotgun that was top-notch, along with other expensive
double-barreled shotguns. But it couldn’t survive on the
profits of those guns alone and made GEHA’s as well.)
-Heym Gebrueder (Almost certainly...I found that when the
company started out in 1922 they were "producing inexpensive
bolt-action shotguns" and the only inexpensive German bolt
shotgun at the time was the GEHA)
-Waffenfabrik Simson (Because of Jewish ownership, Simson
was disbanded under the Third Reich and had its employees
redistributed to firms such as Gustloff-Werke, much like
Gustav Genschow.)

-Krupp Werke (Although this one isn’t
definite, Krupp did make GEHA barrels and boltheads. With
such a limited market in the 1920’s, it is quite possible
they started making entire guns to survive.)

-Gustloff-Werke (While this company did
NOT make GEHA, Remo, or Hard Hit Heart shotguns, they did
absorb the assets of Genschow and Simson, including
employees and machinery.)

I've found three exceptions to my historical rule
in my survey results, though. They are...

-Remo 12 Gauge Shotgun without the "Remo" marking. My guess
is that this was probably a very late production model, as
even the dealers I've found who've had quite a few of these
guns in don't recognize it.

-GEHA 12 Gauge shotgun with a checkered forend and pistol
grip-style stock. My guess? Either the work of a Gun Guild
or a very highly skilled sporterizer.

-GEHA 16 Gauge Shotgun with intact military sling swivel at
the rear. My guess? Someone probably added one, and this was
not original to production.

-Also note that many sporterizers added
recoil pads to these guns (they were fitted with steel
buttplates) and/or created “GEHA Carbines” with barrels of
anywhere from 20” to 24” to make the gun look more like a
sporterized military rifle. Avoid both unless you’re just
looking for a cheap shooter-grade gun.

One
unfortunate thing about the GEHA and its technological
cousins would be that it has been deemed “unsafe” by
armchair “experts” because it lacks frontal locking lugs and
the only lockup is the third, “safety lug” at the rear.
They claim that the pressures of a 12 Gauge, 16 Gauge, or 20
Gauge shotshell is too much for these guns and that they
slowly self-destruct over the years or are equated to
ticking bombs, waiting for the bolt to fly out into the
user’s face. They could not be more wrong. There is
actually nothing fundamentally wrong with the GEHA’s design,
and as it underwent re-heat treatment after it was converted
to a shotgun, this should quash notions that the removal of
metal destroyed the heat treating process. As for the
pressures of a shotgun shell, they are much lower than that
of a rifle cartridge. The safety lug is more than adequate
to keep the bolt in the gun during firing. Another
criticism of the GEHA that can be rather easily dismissed is
that it had headspacing issues. This is due to the fact
that some GEHA’s were chambered for 2 9/16” shotgun shells,
not the standard 2 ¾” American types. It is advisable to
get these guns bored to 2 ¾” by a qualified gunsmith or
simply shoot 2 ½” shells, available from various sources,
though the guns. By using the 2 ¾” shells in a 2 9/16”
chamber, it will wreak havoc on the action, as the changes
in pressure are quite different. Even a tough, proven, and
universally respected shotgun such as the Browning Auto-5 16
Gauge can have its ejector clip blown out by using modern
shells in an old, 2 9/16” chambered gun. When in doubt,
have the gun checked out by a qualified gunsmith. With the
old chamber length, also be sure to check the locking lug to
make sure it’s not cracked. That WILL lead to a failure,
serious injury or even death.

One genuine
problem does, however, exist with the GEHA and its design
cousins…that being the bolthead. The sprung, detachable
bolthead will sometimes pop out of the gun on quick
follow-up shots, and firing the gun with no bolthead is
extremely dangerous. One person taking the technical/safety
survey (see below) had his grandfather lose an eye in just
such a mishap. When in doubt, look at the bolthead. If
you’re in no rush or don’t mind using a single-shot shotgun,
this shouldn’t be much of a problem. Another arguable
defect is the gun’s hellacious recoil. Due to the extremely
light stock, the gun sometimes kicks so hard that if the
wood has not been taken care of, it will crack the stock.
And while the gun is perfectly safe to use with lighter
loads, pushing the limit with baby magnums and hot handloads
will damage the gun (as it would with many 1920’s and
before-era shotguns). Hence, it should be somewhat
restricted to trap and upland game (or, if you handload
lightly enough and the gun has a cylinder bore, slugs). All
in all, though, the GEHA is a technological curiosity, a
functional shotgun, and a piece of history. If you paid
anywhere from $100-$250 (more if a Remo), you got your
money’s worth! Now, I am taking a survey of these shotguns,
too, and would like to know the following…

Safety
and General Issues...

-How many rounds have you fired from your shotgun?
-What sort of shells do you use in it?
-Has the gun given you any problems? If so, what kind?
-How long have you had the gun?
-Have you had to take it to a gunsmith to be repaired?
-Have you witnessed, in person, or heard about from an
absolutely rock-solid reliable source, one of these guns
catastrophically failing and killing or seriously injuring
its owner?

Technical Details...

-Is your gun a GEHA, Remo, or "Hard Hit Heart"?
-What gauge is your gun?
-How long is the barrel on your gun?
-Is your barrel rifled or smoothbore?
-While all bolt handles are bent, does yours have a
flat-sided or fully round bolt handle? The former would
prove the existence of the guns being converted from
Kar98AZ's.
-Do your serial numbers match (while a converted Gewehr 98
or possibly Kar98AZ would in theory match completely, I'm
trying to see how the guns were made up; i.e., if they were
assembled from random parts or directly modified from the
rifles...I've seen a mixture of both, but would like to know
which is more prevalent)?

-Take the barreled action out of the
gun. Under the receiver ring, are there any marks? A
mounted horseman would indicate receiver manufacture by
Pieper (thus originally proving the gun a 1918 Spandau) and
a stylized “SH” marking would indicate receiver manufacture
by Siemens & Halske (also proving the gun originally a 1918
Spandau).

Thanks in advance for your help, and I hope you
liked my little article on this somehow irresistibly
appealing shotgun.

But before I end this
article, I have recently purchased the book Bolt-Action
Rifles by Frank de Haas and Dr. Wayne van Zwoll (the
expanded fourth edition). The article written on pages
334-337 covers the “Mauser Two-Shot Shotgun,” de Haas’s
collective term for the GEHA, Remo, and Hard Hit Heart.
While it is an unbiased article neither condemning the
design of the shotgun nor praising it, it is also,
unfortunately, fraught with error. The most serious of
these errors is the line “All of these guns were chambered
for 2 ¾” shells.” They were not and it is extremely
dangerous to assume so. In the author of this article’s
mind, the assumption and flat-out statement that the guns
are chambered for these modern shells is extremely
dangerous. This is how accidents happen, and this is too
serious of an error to go uncorrected. Other incorrect
assumptions by Mr. de Haas include the Hard Hit Heart being
a GEHA (which it is not), Gustav Genschow having its own
specific variant of the gun (most likely based on the fact
that Gustav Genschow/Geco actually manufactured GEHA’s),
Bayard making the shotguns (this is explained elsewhere in
the author’s article), that Remo manufactured a 20-gauge
shotgun (while unconfirmed, de Haas admits he was
speculating), and that the Remo shell deflector/receiver
strengthener is actually part of the receiver (I have not
observed a Remo in such a state; the deflectors, as
mentioned above, are welded on, although an extremely good
job is done of doing this). That being said, he does do an
excellent job of explaining the construction and
modifications done to the guns. I would recommend the
article as a “must-read” for those seriously interested in
the guns.

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